I finished Primo Levi's "If not now, when?". The book is a fictional recreation of a band of Jewish partisans in their agonized wanderings through Europe in the last two years of WW II. I couldn't put it down. It kept me from going to sleep many nights. An irritating flaw in the book is how Levi too frequently turned the characters into representatives of whole peoples or movements. Some of their speeches and conversations are almost propagandistic. They don't sound real. It's as if Levi inserts himself to explain some historical or ideological background info. But you forgive him -- he's taken us on a hell of a ride.
As much as I love Levi, I have to take break from him.
No comments:
Post a Comment